Paul Lambert held a transfer summit meeting with chairman Randy Lerner on
Sunday but only a maximum of around £10 million will be made available to
spend in the January window.

Lambert has met Lerner twice in the past three days and been promised more funds for next month, with an experienced centre-half, a left-back, a ball-winning midfielder and a forward to be targeted.

Villa want to sign at least three new players and will attempt to sell big earners exiled by Lambert to raise more money, as the club bid to avoid relegation. Stephen Warnock, Shay Given, Alan Hutton, Richard Dunne, Charles N’Zogbia and Stephen Ireland and possibly record signing Darren Bent will be made available.

Lambert’s position as manager is safe but he is approaching the most critical month of his managerial career and is ready to revise his transfer policy to prevent dropping into the Championship.

The Scot’s determination to build for the future is brave but flawed and a failure to bring in experienced leaders next month will be gambling with Villa’s Premier League life.

Lerner, the Villa owner, suffered a painful afternoon on a rare visit on Saturday and must have wondered whether his £22 million outlay in the summer had been money well spent. It is often overlooked that Lambert was in the top six spenders but this transfer window will ultimately decide whether he emerges from this campaign with his reputation intact.

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Lerner and Lambert had talks on Friday and again on Sunday and the pair must establish a strategy to ensure the “we will be fine” mantra does not appear ridiculous in May. Lerner declined another opportunity to speak to the media after this latest defeat but the atmosphere at Villa Park did all the talking for him.

The goodwill from supporters is dissipating, with the first clear signs of mutiny on Saturday as Wigan Athletic secured only their second win in ten games with embarrassing ease.

One can only wonder what the reaction would have been if Alex McLeish had still been in charge, for the recent statistics are damning. Fifteen goals conceded without scoring in three games has left them with a goal difference that could have severe repercussions when the nail-biting begins.

Lambert will point to the fact that Villa have reached a League Cup semi-final. His team are also deprived of players through injuries though, of the current walking wounded, only defender Ron Vlaar has arguably made any contribution.

And while the endeavour of his young team cannot be questioned, the quality is lacking and there remains serious doubts that they possess the mental strength to survive a relegation battle. Those defeats to Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and now Wigan have left scars that must be healed swiftly.

It appears that even the Villa dressing room are seeking battle-hardened reinforcements after this insipid defeat left the club a point above the relegation zone.

Brett Holman, the midfielder, said: “You look at who was on the bench, there’s a few reserve players there. If the manager feels the need to bring in some players, that’s up to him.

“My opinion is that if there are one or two additions where you could pull players in who might say: ’Keep the ball, calm down here ...’ that wouldn’t be a bad thing. It could help if you have a couple of players who have played 200-300 league games.

“We have had some really heavy defeats now. At this point in time we are in a dip. The good thing is we are in the Christmas period and the games are coming thick and fast.”

Wigan have proven masters of escapology in the past and usually reserve their heroics for the final two months of the season but this was a resounding victory to end the year.

Iván Ramis exposed Villa’s defensive frailties with an early header and despite an improved performance from the home team towards the end of the first period, two Wigan goals early in the second half, from Emmerson Boyce and Arouna Koné, completed a deserved win.

Gary Caldwell, the Wigan captain, epitomised everything that is sorely missing for Lambert and believes their experience of beating relegation will pay dividends again.

He said: “Over the years we’ve had these games where you play teams around about you and they do have extra significance in terms of what it does for the table.

“We know we’re down there and it’s going to be a scrap from now to the end of the season but we’ve been there before and we know what it takes.”